Alexis
by Laisai
Summary: A year in the life of a Slytherin from across the Channel. Fortunately for her, it just happens to be the most eventful year of all. (Note: Main character is an OC.)
1. Chapter 1

"Mum, I'm home," Blaise said as they entered the drawing room. His mother lay on the couch, looking every inch a tragic heroine. Her crimson lips stood out against her black skin.

"Oh, good. Tell Binkey to make some dinner. Marcus is out, so I'm afraid you'll have to eat alone tonight," said his mother without moving from the couch. She held her arm dramatically against her forehead. Her eyes were closed.

"I brought a friend with me," Blaise added. Alexis felt him guide her by the elbow to where his mother was. She stood there, waiting for what, she didn't know. Blaise kept glancing between the two of them, shuffling as much as he could without seeming nervous.

"A friend?" His mother sat up, her eyes fluttering open. "Oh, who is it? It isn't that Malfoy boy? I told you to leave them alone."

"No," Blaise replied, "This is Alexis. She transferred this year."

Alexis ran through the story she had prepared beforehand during the summer, the one she had repeated to herself over and over to make sure it would seem real when she said it, that no one would suspect it was a lie. Her heart still sped up though.

"Hello," she said, smiling nervously. "I'm Alexis Reethes."

"Well, at least she's not Slytherin."

Alexis' smile froze on her face. "Sorry?"

"Oh, that wasn't meant for you, love." His mother smiled. She still hadn't introduced herself. Turning to Blaise, she said, "Blaise darling, do be careful. Girls are not as easy to play with as you might think."

"No, mum, that's not what I—what we—we're _just_ _friends_," he replied emphatically. Alexis felt her face flush. From anger or embarrassment, she wasn't sure, but all of a sudden she understood too well Parkinson's sympathetic look, Davis' snigger, and Greengrass' tittering when she had announced her trip. She wanted to run, to hide from this woman who looked at once amused and critical of her at the same time. She wanted to tell her that she was _Alexis Thomas DeRilau_, and that she had better remember it. That she was ten times the witch that this woman was, and how dare she insinuate such things?

But that would be rude. And this woman was Blaise's mother. And Alexis was never one for brazen outbursts, so she kept quiet and let her blood boil beneath her skin, let her face flush, let her eyes lower.

"Just friends? Really, now." His mother arched an eyebrow. "Well, play safe, you two. Mummy's going back to bed." And she winked suggestively at Alexis, her lips twisted into a smile, before shooing them out of the room.

Once they were back in the hall, Alexis spoke. "That…" But she wasn't sure what to say.

"Could have been worse," Blaise finished for her. At her look of amazement, he smiled in apology. "Trust me." Alexis raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. She would have to take his word for it. "Anyway, when would you like to have supper? Since it's only the two of us, I can just ask Binkey—our house elf—to prepare something whenever we want."

"Well, I'm not sure yet. After all, I'm not hungry…"

"Oh, right. I forgot you bought the entire trolley on the Express—ow!" Alexis glared at him. "Sorry?"

"You'd better be." She paused when she noticed Blaise was still looking at her. "What? Don't tell me you're hungry?"

"No, no I'm fine," he replied quickly.

Alexis waited.

"Well, maybe…just a bit, I meant, you know. It has been a while since lunch."

Alexis didn't think she'd ever seen Blaise smile nervously before. "Then what are we waiting for? I'd like to see an house elf, at any rate."

"Right. I'm going to shout, so don't—"

"I'll be fine," she reassured him.

He nodded. "BINKEY!" A loud _crack_ echoed in the hall, and then a little green creature popped into existence in front of Alexis' eyes. So this was an house elf, she thought. It had oversized pointed ears and knobby joints, and its green skin was leathery. Probably from doing manual work. But strangest of all, it wore what looked like a towel, or a bed sheet, wrapped around itself loosely. Alexis would have called it a tee shirt if it weren't so thin and the sleeves so conspicuously absent.

"How may Binkey serve young master today?" it croaked in an ancient voice. One that belonged on dusty shelves along with old books and museum artefacts.

House elves were nothing like the jolly little things Alexis had imagined.

**A/N: Re-read my old fic and realized that at some point in the last few years, I'd worked out an entire story for Alexis (it really used to be a one-shot, I swear). So here's the first part. I'm working on a lot of the things at the moment though, so this may not be updated much. I'm also putting this up here because the other two things I used to have were embarrassingly cringe-worthy. Saving my dignity and all that.**

**Well, I hope you liked reading it. I'll see what I'll put up next.**


	2. Chapter 2

Alexis had decided that she would have a little bit of _fun_ that year after _le Tournoi_ _des Trois_ had been announced in early October. Beauxbâtons, she had realized, was getting dull after three years. The singing nymphs, the breath-taking mountains, the perfectly manicured atmosphere of the school had taken a toll on her.

Alexis was from Paris.

Beauxbâtons was in the Pyrénées.

It was not hard to pinpoint the problem.

And so, in typical Derilau fashion, Alexis had bribed, blackmailed, and conspired with a few upperclassmen to get herself on the giant powder-blue carriage that was to take select students to Scotland. Students who were all, with the exception of Alexis, going to be of age by the start of the tournament.

It had been brilliant.

Alexis was grinning even as she was caught, half a day after they'd taken off. It was too late to send her back, so all the teachers could do was to ban her from entering the tournament (not that she had wanted to risk her life in the first place, she just wanted to go somewhere new) and make her do menial chores for a while. At least until the next holidays, when they would try to send her back. Mme Maxime had been livid, of course, because Alexis had already accrued a whole pile of demerits in the past three years and this was on the verge of breaking international law, but what did Alexis care? It wasn't like they could expel her.

Of course, she had been more than a little disappointed by Hogwarts when they arrived. It looked to be even more remote than Beauxbâtons, and with less style.

"What is _that?_" Alexis asked at the giant coming over to care for the palominos who had pulled the carriage.

"Hush," said Manon, a girl in _première_ who'd been held back twice because she couldn't pass her exams. Alexis rather thought that Manon ought to have known better than try and shush her. Really. As if she were a child.

Her parents were suing each other in Muggle courts, and it would have been a scandal when Atilio found out were it not for Alexis' great blackmailing skills (she found his stash of creepy candid photos of various female students, and threatened to take it to the Dean. It had worked like a charm.) (Looking for the rumoured stash had been excruciatingly disgusting, however.) Then it was a matter of guilt-tripping Manon to get her onto the carriage.

Alexis paid absolutely no attention to the odd welcome that the Hogwarts students gave them and instead wondered when the food would appear. Also, why did these students wear different emblems? Did they divide themselves into teams, for the tournament? And, if so, which team would be the best? She sighed. Alright, so perhaps deciding to take an international trip with no one her age for company had been a bit of a bad idea.

The thing was, though, Alexis hadn't even thought to bring anyone because there had been no one to bring. Her classmates all had best friends, but she was always left out. She had briefly entertained the idea of including Lars Meijer because he had been nice to her and seemed to have a sense of humour, but in the end decided against it. He liked his meals a little too much, Alexis thought. If you knew what she meant.


End file.
